b. 20/07/1843 Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. d. 01/12/1924 Yeagertown, Pennsylvania.
DATE OF MOH ACTION: 05/04/1865 Paine’s Crossroads, Virginia.
Born in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania on July 20, 1843, James Parker Landis was a son of Pennsylvania natives Martin and Mary Landis. Reared and educated in that county, he resided in the community of Lewistown in Derry Township in 1860 with his parents and older brother Joseph, who served as an apprentice plasterer to master plasterer and family patriarch Martin Landis.
He served as a Chief Bugler in the Union Army in the 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for action on April 5, 1865 at Paines Crossroads, Virginia. His citation reads “Capture of flag.”Having survived the war through the surrender of the Confederate Army by General Robert E. Lee, Landis was finally discharged, honorably, by Special Order No. 312 on June 20, 1865.
Following his honorable discharge from the military, Landis returned home to Mifflin County, where he resumed his work as a plasterer and married. In 1870, he resided in Lewistown, Derry Township with his wife, Annie (born in Pennsylvania, circa 1841). Sometime around 1889, Landis married Caroline E. (Heckman) Landis (1845–1922), a daughter of Benjamin Heckman. In 1910, he resided with her in Derry Township, where he was employed as a watchman for a local steel plant. Described once again as a house plasterer on the 1920 federal census, he was documented as residing in Lewistown’s 5th Ward that year with “Carrie”.
His second wife then preceded him in death, passing away in Lewistown on October 18, 1922. On October 1, 1924, he was awarded an increase in his U.S. Civil War Pension from $60 to $82 per month (made retroactive to August 1, 1923). His pension records during these years also documented that he was a Medal of Honor winner. Landis was subsequently interred beside his wife at the Yeagertown Lutheran Cemetery in Mifflin County following his death at the age of 81 in that county’s Derry Township on December 1, 1924.
MOH CITATION:
Capture of flag.
BURIAL LOCATION: YEAGERTOWN LUTHERAN CEMETERY, YEAGERTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA.
LOT 11A
LOCATION OF MEDAL: UNKNOWN.
